


Indigo Gauntlet

by Isaac_A_Drake



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Action/Adventure, Gen, Kantou-chihou | Kanto Region (Pokemon), Pokemon, Pokemon Journey, Pokemon Training
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-25
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:53:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 17,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24903376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Isaac_A_Drake/pseuds/Isaac_A_Drake
Summary: Ash woke up in time for Professor Oak's Pokemon field trip that day. Meeting Pichu, Kangaskhan, and even Mew changed his Kanto journey for the better. Ash was going to run the gauntlet of the Indigo League, and he was going to to be the dark ponyta of the competition. No pairing, flashback-heavy, competent from the start Ash, hints of Aura
Comments: 9
Kudos: 54





	1. The Water Stage

**Author's Note:**

> Small break from Secret Fire, nothing big, too much research for the next few chapters to write during work downtime for that one. Pokemon Journeys launched on Netflix and inspired this. This should only be a short sequence of chapters before being “Finished”. Maybe I continue this after that? I am not sure, I just kept getting stuck in Kanto recaps or the disjointedness of the timeline after a few seasons with my old pokemon fanfics.

I want to be the very best, Ash thought to himself as he strode out onto the arena’s stand, ever since that day when Mew saved me and I met Pichu.

Pikachu’s ear twitched as he sat on Ash’s shoulder and Ash fondly thought back to the day he had barely woken up in time to attend Professor Oak’s Pokemon Camp. 

That had been a supremely exciting day. A younger kid named Goh had known so much information about pokemon that Ash had started to get jealous. They had begun to fight when a fight between a nidoking and a strange pokemon had caught their attention.

All three of them, including Chloe the daughter of a Pokemon Professor, had run off after it.

Eventually they had come to find it at a ravine with a river running at the bottom, playing with a baby kangaskhan. 

When the infant pokemon had fallen Ash hadn’t even stopped to think, he had leapt from the other side of the ravine to attempt to save the baby.

And, he had almost made it. Something had overcome him, empowered him, allowed him to leap that far.

But it would not have stopped him from falling to a terrifying and painful death if Mew had not intervened. 

After the legendary pokemon lowered he and the baby kangaskhan to the ground its mother as well as a young pichu had come over to thank him. The pichu even leaning over to lick his cheek.

That day had cemented his friendship with Goh, the respect of Professor Oak, his drive to be better, and unknowingly begun his relationship with his starter. 

“Alright, this is the first round match on the Water Stage folks! Be prepared for an exciting match that I promise will not DAMPEN anyone’s enthusiasm! Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town versus the Astounding Mandi of Vermillion City!” The announcer called out.

The referee raised his flags, “Select your pokemon!” 

Both trainers palmed their pokeballs and Mandi decided to partake in a little smack-talk and casually spun his pokeball on his finger, “You know I was hoping for a challenge to warm up for the later rounds, but I suppose I can take an easy win!” 

Ash allowed a smirk to creep up onto his face, “How many minor gym badges did you collect to get here?” he taunted back, “I doubt you’ll be anything next to Blaine or Giovanni!” 

That statement shook the juggler slightly and he frowned at his opponent, now taking him more seriously. He had defeated Blaine, but barely, Giovanni...that was a gym he had completely avoided instead opting for a minor gym just as the boy’s taunt had suggested. 

“Begin!” 

Both pokeballs soared out over the arena and a mighty kingler appeared on Ash’s side of the field while a tall and robust exeggutor appeared in front of Mandi in a flash of red. 

“Dive!” Ash commanded immediately and Kingler complied, swiftly leaping into the water and disappearing. 

“Expose it with Psychic!” Mandi shouted out and the eyes of Exeggutor glowed with a blue light and the water near where Kingler had leapt in began to move and swirl, turning into a whirlpool. 

Kingler had already moved to where he was not at the center of the phenomenon, but he was caught just barely by the side of it and was pulled swiftly into the current.

“Now, Egg Bomb it into unconsciousness!” Ash shook his head as the projectiles began to barrage the whirlpool, ironically the fast current causing Kingler to be able to shift slightly and send himself moving out of the way of the explosions.

“Now!” Ash called out as the last bomb left a large plume of water, which Kingler used as cover with which to leap out of the water and land a vicious Stomp attack on Exeggutor, causing it to flinch back in pain and shock.

“Follow up, before it gets up!” The command was swiftly followed as Kingler lunged forward from its landing position to snap its large claw onto Exeggutor in a Vise Grip, actually knocking the plant creature out.

As the pokemon was recalled, Pikachu started laughing into his little paws and Ash smiled, remembering the laughter of his starter on the day it came back into his life.

He had been heading over to help Professor Oak out with grooming the pokemon at the lab when an explosion rang out in the distance. Alarmed Ash had taken off straight towards the main lab instead of some of the stables and kennels the way he normally did.

Upon arrival he had thrown open the door to see Professor Oak sitting dazed on the floor lightly singed while a pikachu rolled around laughing, the chewed up cables behind it giving context to the entire situation.

“Hey!” Ash called out and pointed at the electric mouse, “What did you do that for? This isn’t your house you know! You can’t just come in here and started chewing on things!” 

The pikachu stopped laughing and leapt up onto its feet, cheeks sparking, until right as it was about to fire off a Thundershock a strange look came over its face and with a burst of speed it was by Ash’s side sniffing at him from multiple angles.

“Hey, uh...what are you doing?” Ash made a grab at the rodent but it was too quick, after the second grab it leaned up and licked Ash’s cheek.

He froze, a memory from the most important day in his life so far coming unbidden back to his mind, “You’re that...Pichu?”

“Pika pika chu!” The little guy nodded excitedly. 

Ash looked deep into the pokemon’s eyes, finding perhaps in some way a kindred spirit, “Hey, I become a Pokemon Trainer in a few weeks, do you want to be my partner?” 

“Pika-Chu!” 

He had captured most of his pokemon with Pikachu’s help, either with battling or by his unyielding faith in his trainer convincing the pokemon to come along. 

And that had led in turn to all of his pokemon having very strong bonds with him.

“Grr...well let’s see how that big lug takes on a real water pokemon! Go Seadra!” 

Next victim, Ash thought amusedly before commanding, “Stomp!” 

Ash hoped to cause another round of flinching to get some early damage in order to wear the seadra out before it could really get moving. 

Unfortunately that was not to be, the seahorse pokemon quickly flickered into an Agility and over to the other side of the pool.

What came next was a frustrating cat and mouse game, Kingler’s massive defense and attack stats meant that Seadra had to resort to hit and run tactics where Kingler could not get a solid hit in. However Kingler was used to sparring with Misty’s own seadra, so he knew to be patient, Ash had spent weeks after he evolved teaching him to use his massive claw as a shield for defense as well as offense. 

Time and time again the seadra attempted to sneak a Water Gun, Ice Beam, or even a physical Waterfall attack, and yet the claw always got in the way.

“Uggh! What a brute! Fine, Seadra! Use Focus Energy!”

That was the opening Ash had been waiting for, as soon as the seadra paused to gather its focus he gave the command for the combination that they had developed against Misty’s own seadra, “Aqua Breaker!” 

With a push of all of his powerful legs, Kingler went flying into the air at the seadra, landing with a vicious stomp, the flinch almost guaranteed from interrupting the seahorse’s focus allowed him to wallop the creature with a vicious Crabhammer attack, sending it soaring up into the air.

For the finisher another leap powered by his mighty legs allowed Kingler to follow the seadra up into the air and grab it with a Vise Grip, bringing it down head first onto a platform knocking it out.

“Ash and Kingler win again! The Astounding Mandi is now astounded to be down to one pokemon!” 

Ash coolly looked on and snapped his fingers, causing Kingler to quickly leap back to a platform on his side of the field. 

Mandi was now visibly fuming from the displayed talent and calm from his opponent.

Ash was a very passionate trainer when a good fight got his blood up, but this was not one of those fights.

“That’s it! It’s down to you, Slowbro!” Mandi sent out a hulking beast of a slowbro, the part psychic-type had a focus on its face that Ash did not normally associate with that species. 

“It weathered Exeggutor’s Psychic, so we need to stop it in its tracks! Thunder Wave!” 

That surprised Ash, usually a Slowbro would have coverage moves not crippling moves, “Jump!” 

Kingler’s leap barely took it over the wave of electricity that rippled out from the immobile hermit crab pokemon. 

“Stomp!” Ash called out the attack that Kingler was already in the midst of executing, training your pokemon into certain tactics and calling out the moves late was an acceptable tactic, unlike calling out fake or incorrect moves. 

“We’ve got him! Disable!” 

Ash and Kingler both were taken by surprise and Ash began to feel his blood boil in anticipation and excitement for the first time in the battle. He was starting to think Mandi had started with two of his weaker main team members thinking he could save his strong ones for later.

Everything sharpened in his mind, he became hyper aware of his own body and that of his pokemon’s, and he could sense the psychic energy enveloping Kingler.

He was reminded of the first time he had felt it, when he had fought Sabrina the first time.

Her kadabra had been a monster, certainly he should have not attempted her for his fifth badge after Celadon. 

Pikachu had been dodging with Agility for a solid five minutes, just to stay out of the way of telekinetically thrown bits of the arena and to keep ahead of the psychic pokemon’s targeting ability. 

And then he had run smack into a Reflect barrier that Kadabra had secretly lured him into. That was when the Psychic attack took hold. Ash had been able to feel the constriction around Pikachu and felt as if he were being suffocated himself.

“S-stop! I forfeit!” He had called out in response, ending the match. 

He spent the next month and a half heading over to Lavender Town to catch Haunter and then heading down to Fuschia to train both Haunter and himself for the rematch.

In the end, Ash mused as Kingler shot off a Hydro Pump to propel himself away from the slowbro, it had definitely been worth it. 

Now, how to end this? Ash wondered as Kingler acted independently, poking and prodding at the hermit crab’s defenses to allow Ash to analyze the opponent, a tactic all his pokemon knew how to perform for him. 

When not being given active commands they all knew to stay mobile and keep up a change of varying attacks so Ash could see how his opponents reacted and come up with a solution.

When another Thunder Wave went off chasing Kingler out of the water Ash found his solution.

The slowbro was visibly tiring out, the exertion of its earlier attempts to catch Kingler finally catching up to its glacial speed nervous system. 

“Sword and board maneuver!” Ash called out as Kingler landed and psychic energies coalesced around him.

A Protect shield shimmered into place, its green clashing horribly with the wavy and faint purple of the psychic energies, then as the energies from both techniques faded, a piercing yellow-orange of a Hyper Beam shot out from Kingler’s large claw and took the slowbro straight into its gut, and fifteen meters back into the stadium wall, just underneath where psychic barriers took over from Pewter City concrete. 

The referee waited for a few counts before Mandi withdrew his slowbro in disappointment.

“And the winner is Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!” 

The crowd went wild, Ash grinned as he withdrew Kingler and followed it up with a high-five, hand to tail, with Pikachu.

“The first step, buddy!” He was going to take Indigo by storm.


	2. Rock You Like a Hurricane

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I might do this for a bit when I can’t take the time to do the full research for an SF chapter. We’ll still get those as close to weekly as I can manage though. What do you guys think of me including more modern moves btw? Or sticking mostly to First or Second Gen/Remake movesets? I may compromise and use mostly Let’s Go movesets with occasional reasonable other moves sprinkled in.

“So, Ash,” He turned to look at his friend and traveling companion, Misty, as she spoke to him, “What are you thinking of using on the Rock Field?”

Ash tilted his head to the side slightly as he thought, “I think I’ll use my fliers mostly. Except for...those two. I will start with Pidgeotto and work from there. I don’t really have a lot of pokemon that could abuse the terrain by digging, but if Pidgeotto has trouble I think Primeape would make a good showing!” 

Misty laughed at the notion, “Well I guess he would! So still planning to save the really big guns for the end of the preliminaries?”

He nodded, “I mean obviously if I need them I make sure to always have Pikachu with me and one of the others on my belt in case I face stronger competition! But even this next guy, I looked him up, he’s got five badges from minor gyms. He only beat Brock, your sisters, and Erika!” 

That got him a light punch to his shoulder, “Don’t get too cocky now!”

“Hey! I know that! That’s why I’ve got Pikachu and another of my strongest team on me at all times! If something surprises me I’ll surprise it right back!” He pumped a fist into the air, just the concept of getting far enough along to have a really strong opponent and a good fight energized him. 

Ten minutes later saw Ash less than impressed with his opponent’s pokemon. 

The nidorina wasn’t the worst example of its species, but having gotten to face down Giovanni’s nidoqueen it was certainly not the best. That monster alone had almost wiped out his team. 

Pidgeotto however flapped her wings confidently as she waited for her opponent to make the first move. 

“You know the opener, Pidgeotto! You’ve got this!” Ash called out encouragingly.

“Don’t be so confident!” His opponent yelled before ordering, “Poison Sting!” 

Pidgeotto immediately upon the nidorina committing fully to the attack put on a burst of speed and relocated to hovering right in front of the sun. The winds whipped around the upper level of the arena and then suddenly there were a dozen versions of Pidgeotto speeding down towards the nidorina. 

“Uh...Dig!” The trainer, obviously unnerved by the speed with which the bird pokemon was moving and the Double Team it had set up, commanded and the nidorina to her credit did swiftly burrow into the earth. 

“You know what to do with underground opponents!” Ash called out, Pidgeotto had extensively worked with Brock’s rock and ground-type pokemon over the previous season. 

When you have a pokemon that goes underground, you flush it out. Kingler would push a Hydro Pump down the hole, Charizard a Flamethrower, and Pidgeotto while it was less powerful than the others, gathered and sent a vicious Twister, full of partially draconic energies, down into the hole before the nidorina could hope to create a network extensive enough to fully disperse the vicious winds.

The nidorina popped up and out of the ground in a burst about five meters off from Pidgeotto, who immediately honed in and slammed a brutal Wing Attack into the creature, knocking it out embarrassingly simply. 

Ash was...disappointed to say the least in the quality of this opponent. 

“Grr...alright then, I’ll just have to go for somebody sturdier! Get out here, Onix!” 

While certainly smaller than Brock’s onix this was still more impressive than the previous pokemon. 

A brief look at Pidgeotto showed that she was still in fighting spirit and had her Double Team and Agility going as she and her images flickered around the field.

He made the decision to let her at least weaken the onix a bit.

“Sand Attack and Air Slash, alternating!” Quickly winds whipped up a bunch of sand and dirt from the arena to spread across Onix’s face, causing it to roar out in discomfort. 

“Brush it off and Rock Slide!” 

Uh oh, Ash thought as the rock snake slammed out one of the more brutal rock-type moves typically available to your average trainer. The veritable landslide of the attack rocketed through over half of Pidgeotto’s images, reducing her ability to evade immensely. 

Knowing that one strike of that kind of power and super-effective typing would knock her out, Ash readied her pokeball for a return but did not yet use it. She’d earned a good fight. 

Her own Air Slash flew out, seemingly from three directions of herself and the remaining images, it slammed into the onix but the creature tanked the move rather effectively despite its defense to special moves being a bit less than its massive physical defenses. 

Ash allowed the cat and mouse game to continue for another few minutes until he noticed Pidgeotto slowing down and tiring, not wanting her to actually be injured if he could help it he returned her.

“That was a great effort, Pidgeotto! You earned a rest, the rest of us will finish this!” He withdrew another pokeball. 

“You’re up, Mimey!” Ash was borrowing Mimey, who was registered to him in the first place, back from his mother while she attended the tournament to see him compete. And this was the perfect place to have him make his debut. 

Because while Mimey wasn’t slacking too hard on training due to being able to spar with his other pokemon at Oak’s ranch occasionally, Ash wasn’t too sure he could compete with his stronger members like Pikachu or Charizard. 

This was a perfect testing ground. 

“Reflect!” Ash commanded Mimey to immediately get a barrier up upon coming out, and it was a good thing too, the psychic wall barely came up in time to block an incoming Headbutt from the onix. 

“Confusion!” The odd purple waves rippled around the onix’s head causing the beast to thrash in place for a moment, but as they faded Ash could tell it had not been fully confused. 

“That’s it! Wrap it up with Bind!” 

“Teleport away and use Encore!” The mime pokemon flickered out of place as the onix’s rocky body began to wrap around his location and appeared atop a boulder on the opposite side of the field. He then began clapping and waving and sparks of light shot out.

The onix was entranced and went in for another Bind, but he had to make it all the way across the field to do so and gave Mimey plenty of time for his next attack.

“Perfect Mimey! Fire away!” The Psybeam slammed right into the onix’s forehead and this time the confusion took and the rock snake was withdrawn as he began to thrash and flail about. 

“I only have one thing I can use against a psychic…” The trainer grit out, “Go, Venomoth!” 

Nominally a bug-type was a solid choice, particularly one that itself had weak psychic powers.

But Ash had had Mimey doing a lot of work over the past week with his other pokemon, and he had a feeling they were about to see the results. 

“Use Psywave to push away any dust then box it in!” Ash called out, and over the next few minutes multiple Sleep and Poison Powders were pushed away from Mimey as he set up Reflect after Reflect to pull the moth pokemon in to a trap. 

When it had nowhere else to run Ash called out, “Now, Mimey! Fire Punch!” 

It was a brutal one-hit-KO as the punch slammed the moth back into a barrier. 

“Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town is the winner!” 

“Oh Ash, you and Mimey were perfect out there!” His mother crowed as they made their way towards one of the pop-up restaurants on the plateau to celebrate, Brock and Misty planning to meet them there.

“Aww, Mom!” Ash was blushing at the praise, though Mimey was seemingly puffing out his chest and began to pantomime portions of the fight to show off. 

“Really, I was worried because Mimey doesn’t fight all that often, and I don’t know what I would do if the poor dear were hurt too badly! But you both handled yourselves so well! I won’t be worried in the future!”

Rubbing the back of his head, Ash held the door open for his mother, “Thanks, Mom! It means a lot that you believe in us!” 

After they sat, and just after they ordered their drinks they were joined by Ash’s two best friends, Brock and Misty, both accredited gym leaders in their own rights who had taken their first sabbaticals as leaders that season due to a mix of Ash impressing them as a new trainer and the League impressing upon them the need to train up their primary teams to higher competency due to both of them essentially being on provisional terms due to inheriting the positions thanks to very old city charters with the League. 

They had both taken it as a chance to train up their personal teams. Misty now had a working relationship with her gyarados as well as having evolved her horsea into a seadra and working tirelessly to turn Psyduck into something resembling competent. 

“Thanks for baby-sitting Togepi during the match!” Ash said as Misty handed the adorable little bundle over. 

“Pi-preee!” The egg-shaped pokemon cried out.

“I’m practically the cutie’s mother, Ash, and he knows it. Yes he does!” She tickled the little head-ridges as the fairy-type trilled some more.

Ash blushed lightly when his mother raised an eyebrow and gave him a look.

“Haha, yeah for sure! So did you like how that Twister worked out thanks to training with you, Brock?” He expertly dodged the topic. 

The dark-skinned teen nodded, “You did great, Ash! Pidgeotto will have the power to punch through an onix after she evolves, which from her plumage and the power of that Twister I think will be soon!” 

The young trainer grinned, “I can’t wait for her to be a pidgeot! Imagine being able to fly on her back!” 

His mother paled slightly, “You’ll get a harness or saddle or something, right sweetie?” 

Ash hadn’t even thought of that but quickly nodded, “I should have enough money if I break out of the preliminary stages to do that! I don’t want you to worry about me, Mom. Not after how torn up you got after the SS Anne incident,”.

His mother gulped once more at that reminder, “You three were lost at sea for days! I just...I can’t go through that again, alright?”

He didn’t need the reminder, but Ash nodded again, he hated worrying his mother. 

Though being lost at sea had worked out, Misty had evolved Horsea and begun to get along with Gyarados, Brock had been able to break through to his Kabuto, and Ash had bonded with who would eventually become one of his strongest pokemon. 

Not yet though, that was an evolution away. 

Even as they ate, Ash’s mind drifted back to the entire day of drifting in the sun a top Horsea, Krabby, and Kabuto, just trying to stay lucid until they could get some kind of orientation towards land from the scouting Pidgeotto. 

Yes, he could still remember the mixture of surprise, alarm, and hope he had felt when a strange silhouette crossed the sun and began to descend towards them.

Changing to outright awe as just before he fully passed out that day months ago, he had seen his first dragonite in all its golden glory.


	3. Icing the Competition

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Am I fleshing out gym leaders and the League more in line with my other stories to make them make more sense? Abso-freaking-lutely. Brock’s line-up in the anime is embarrassing. Hopefully I finish the next Secret Fire chapter Sunday, because that is my only day off until NEXT Saturday.  
> This story is very in Ash’s head if you haven’t noticed. Should I complete this and do a sequel that will likely change as I get out of a strategic tournament setting and can chart a totally new course for Ash post-Indigo.  
> Anyways the goal of showing all these ‘canon’ matches is to show the changes with Ash’s style and even how those changes affect the people around him. For example the usage of Slowbro in that first match because his better use of tactics caused his opponent to not rely on the aerial skills of Golbat.

The day of Ash’s third round he did not compete until the later portion of the day. That gave he, Brock, and Misty plenty of time to relax after lunch in a little grassy park with their pokemon all playing around them.

“You know, after how constantly on edge we were for Team Rocket attacks all the time this feels...unnerving,” Misty commented. 

“Jessie and James were pushovers, even if they were pretty tricky. It was those executives that creeped me out!” Brock responded with a shudder. 

“I’m just glad Archer was the only one we had to deal with,” Ash grumbled, pulling his hat over his eyes to block out the sun, “Lorelai and Lance arrived just in time to stop Proton and Ariana from taking over Silph Co when we were picking up that Porygon for Professor Oak!” 

As conversation trailed off Ash felt Togepi pull at his shirt and eventually successfully climb up to lay down on his chest. 

Ash wasn’t sure what he was going to do with the little baby pokemon, if when it was older and if he and Misty eventually went their own ways, particularly with her having gym duties to return to, Ash thought he might simply let the little guy choose who he went with. 

All the talk of the Rockets however had made Ash think back to how Misty had captured her own fossil pokemon with Omanyte. That battle with the Rockets in Grandpa Canyon had been vicious and had even awakened an ancient and hibernating Aerodactyl! Charmeleon had evolved to protect Ash and the company and it had only been his Great Ball he had received as a tournament prize before the SS Anne went down that had allowed him to capture the beast. 

He was hoping Aerodactyl could make his debut in the semi-finals or finals out here, after receiving his final badge Aerodactyl had been the pokemon that received the most of his attention in the weeks leading up to the tournament. 

He had only barely gotten the monstrous fossil pokemon to become acceptably obedient in time for the Indigo League Tournament. But Ash was very firmly planning to only use Aerodactyl at the point where he had almost no other choice, until the final match a withdrawal was a forfeit, and Ash was unsure he could stop Aerodactyl’s bloodlust from getting the best of him even with his newly improved compliance.

Charizard had been a pleasant surprise, while he had become unruly as a Charmeleon, the eventual respect Ash earned back from the fire-type over time had transferred over when he evolved, particularly due to the capture of Aerodactyl, and while he was a vicious and arrogant battler, he typically listened to Ash’s commands unless he regarded the opponent as not worth even a cursory attempt at strategy. 

Obviously, Ash thought, there was still work to do, but it was better than most young trainers whose charmeleons evolved earlier than expected got from the evolution. 

Just the previous year a fresh trainer, thankfully not an Oak sponsored trainer, had had their charmeleon evolve unexpectedly early in the middle of the forests outside of Fuschia and it had gone rogue and burned down fifteen acres before the Rangers subdued it. 

Not the kind of event Ash ever wanted to be responsible for! 

The closer Ash got to the fourth round and then the end of the preliminaries the more anxious and energized he was simultaneously feeling. 

His search for strength and kindness after the powerful and legendary Mew had saved his life that day had led him to fascinating and previously unthought of on his part heights, but somehow he always felt like he wasn’t doing enough. 

But suddenly Ash was seeing that he perhaps was not as far behind as he thought. Perhaps comparing himself to Gary, a known prodigy even if he was a jerk, and two gym leaders was not a normal type of goal post for a first season trainer. 

His most powerful team could keep up with and occasionally defeat the pokemon that Brock and Misty had in their personal teams. Of course they also had access to brutal family pokemon that were on their second or third generation of being top-tier gym fighting pokemon, those he had discovered in the past few weeks when Brock and Misty had both had one brought over each could outclass any of his pokemon. 

The golem that had been Flint’s starter was a particularly terrifying beast. Even if the man himself had turned into a rampant disappointment in the last half-decade. 

Watching it attempt to treat Brock like a child, going so far as to shooing him away from his cooking fire and attempting to make the food itself, however had been well worth having to watch in horror during the training session where it curb-stomped Pikachu, Charizard, and Kingler with a casual diffidence that was unnerving. 

Turning back more to the present, Ash ran back over his strategy for the Ice Field.

He would be planning to use Kingler and Haunter as his primary combatants. Pikachu would be his finisher if he were forced down to his third pokemon unless something dramatically went wrong and the tide was horrifyingly against him. 

He highly doubted he’d be facing an extremely strong ground-type on the Ice Field however. Not just for the terrain disadvantage but also because a ground, rock, or fire-type could all be put fully out of commission simply by dropping them into the water underneath the admittedly thick ice rink. 

And Pikachu and Kingler both had a few attacks that could handle that job. 

Yes, he’d start with Kingler and reveal Haunter if necessary. While not as surprising to see or overwhelmingly powerful as its fully evolved form would be, a ghost-type was still uncommon at this level of competition and especially for a rookie trainer. 

Actually, Ash realized with surprise as he ran through what he knew of the remaining trainers. He, Gary, and Ritchie were the only rookie trainers left in the tournament! Pebbleman, who Ash was facing in an hour or so, was in his second season. 

The girl Gary was facing off against in the next round was in her fourth season and had placed in the top sixteen both of the previous two years. 

Actually, now that Ash thought about it, the fourth round was going to be very rough for him and the other rookie trainers. His upcoming match was the last of the third round, so he knew that if he won he’d be facing off against...Janet? It might be Janet. But the important part was that she seemed to be a trainer who was on her third active season and had taken a season off last year to become a gym trainer under Erika. 

Definitely a difficult opponent. And it would be on the Grass Field (you couldn’t be on the same field twice as the Red Trainer, so Ash knew where he would be next) which would almost be a home turf advantage for her. Gloom would certainly see use in that match to scout out her abilities. His other pokemon would be a bit up in the air, if she favored poison types he’d bring Butterfree out. But if she was using her bugs he may bring Pidgeotto in. 

Charizard wouldn’t deign to fight any bug south of a scyther or pinsir. 

And if Ash were honest with himself he didn’t always exactly blame Charizard for not wanting to fight in a match where he was blatantly an overkill option. 

It was like asking Ash to fistfight a toddler, very undignified.  
He was shaken out of his musings quite literally by Brock shaking his shoulders. 

“Hey, Ash! You better not doze off you have to be over at the arena in ten minutes!” 

The young man from Pallet Town bolted straight to his feet, juggling Togepi who giggled gleefully before finally catching the little egg-pokemon in his arms.

“Ah...uh…” He glanced around before grinning sheepishly and holding Togepi out towards Misty, “Do you mind?” 

She rolled her eyes as she stood up and brushed her shorts off from the grass.

“Yes, yes, I’ll take him. Excited to come hang out with me little cutie?” She cooed in baby-talk as she took Togepi into her arms. 

Grateful Ash said his good-byes, they’d be joining in the stands a little later than he had to be physically present himself, and made his way over to the arena.

Brock, Misty, and his mother were all in his guest seats cheering loudly by the time the trainers were called out of the preparation rooms to the field proper half an hour later. 

“Alright, folks!” The announcer called out as the trainers took their positions on their stands, “We’ve got a swell match for you all tonight! One of our three explosive rookies taking the competition by storm, Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town!”

The crowd went wild. 

“Versus the strongman who last year made it to the fourth round as a rookie himself! Pete Pebbleman of Pewwwtttteeerrr!” 

Pete obviously had at least a few fans in the crowd, but nowhere near the response the rookies were getting at this tournament. 

“Get ready, trainers! Release those pokemon in 3...2...1!” 

Two pokeballs flew out into the arena from the trainers releasing twin flashes of red light which formed into pokemon that were both floating above the icey and jagged arena.

A purple smog seemed to twist and turn and wrap in upon itself until an evil grin, a long salivating tongue, two wide eyes, and two disconnected hand-like constructs emerged. 

Ash’s haunter had taken the field for the first time in the tournament. 

The opposing floating conglomeration of magnets and conductors appeared completely unphased by the ghost across the field from it however.

“Mag-ne-ton!” It grated out in response to the ghost blowing it a raspberry. 

Ash frowned, a steel-type wouldn’t take too much direct damage from Haunter’s ghost or poison type moves. Luckily however he had alternatives.

“Night Shade!” Ash cried out, this ghost-type move struck straight into the psyche of the opposing pokemon and bypassed defenses to always do the same amount of damage compared to the user’s relative strength.

It scaled terribly to higher levels of competition unless your play was to chip away at the health and sanity of an opponent who you could not normally get damage through to.

Which was precisely Ash’s only real option here.

“Thunder Wave!” Pete called out as his magneton tanked the first wave of ghostly attack and shot out its own wave, more similar in scope and power to Pikachu than the slowbro’s Thunder Wave in his first match, Ash noted. 

Haunter was able to fade out of the way of that attack and pop out of the shadow of an ice shard the size of a fire hydrant near the magneton.

“Hypnosis!” Ash called out, but Haunter could not get the move off fast enough and the magneton was well trained, letting out a defensive Flash move to disrupt the Hypnosis without even being commanded. 

Haunter was strong, tricky, and difficult to strike. But he was also one of the pokemon Ash needed to command more directly, otherwise he tended to play with his opponents and draw matches out far too long for fun. That opened the ghost-type up to being taken out by surprise counter attacks. 

“It’s alright, Haunter!” Ash called out as he noticed his pokemon becoming visibly frustrated, “You know how to fight this kind of thing, just keep chipping away and evading it! Confuse Ray!”

The strange ghostly energy was met with a Thunderbolt mid-flight, once more neutralizing Haunter’s attack. 

The magneton in fact appeared to counter everything Haunter threw at it over the next few minutes. 

Another Hypnosis was stopped with Flash, Thunderbolts intercepted beams and rays, and its steel body stopped a Sucker Punch cold. 

Ash noticed Haunter getting slower with his utilization of the shadows for travel and knew it had to end quickly. 

“Trust me here, Haunter! Sludge Bomb right in its face!!” With no hesitation a glob of toxic sludge was spat out at the magneton, and thinking it was safe from its immunity to poisons it did not both to dodge.

Damage was not the goal however, the magneton had not expected to be blinded by the clinging muck and began to rotate in the air violently in frustration.

“Magneton! Get it off of you!” Its trainer commanded. 

“Will-o-Wisp Haunter!” The ghostly fire flared outwards and singed the magnet pokemon badly, however the sludge was always burned away. 

“That’s it!” Pebbleman called out, “Flash Cannon!” 

The wickedly fast burst of light and steel-type energy slammed into Haunter before he could fade out of view, scattering some of his gaseous body outwards for a moment. 

“Haunter, it’s just a matter of time! Hide in a Smog!” Ash was glad that Haunter at least was obedient to direct commands in spite of his playfulness, as the quick responses to his commands were allowing Haunter to stay in the match much longer than he otherwise could have. 

“Lock-on then Thunder!” 

That command however made Ash’s eyes widen in surprise. Haunter had no real defense against that kind of combination.

“Brace!” Was all he could call out before a massive bolt of lightning flew down from above and slammed into Haunter within the Smog, it also ignited the poisonous gas causing an explosion that slammed into the magneton as well.  
Once the smoke cleared the referee declared, “Both pokemon are unable to continue!” 

“A thrilling double knock-out! We only get a few of those a tournament! What will the trainers choose next?” 

As soon as the pokemon were returned and the smoke had fully dispersed the referee signaled for the next pokemon to be released. 

Out of the pokeballs appeared the next combatants, Ash’s Kingler making his reappearance, and a bulky cloyster, grinning through the gap on its shell. 

This, Ash thought, was going to drag out forever. 

Kingler, while a brutal powerhouse, did not have many moves that could break through the kind of defense a cloyster brought to the table. He mentally made a note to buy the Brick Break technical machine for Kingler if he had enough when the tournament was over. Or double down on having him work with Primeape to figure something out. 

He was going to have to either count on brute force and stamina or luck here.

And while Ash did tend to be lucky, he preferred to make his luck not rely on it. 

“Get in there fast with a Stomp and start hammering!” Ash commanded.

Almost surprised by the swiftness of its seemingly bulky crustacean opponent the cloyster got caught by the Stomp in the face while it was beginning to form up Icicle Spears for its own attacks.

It swiftly used Withdraw, even before the command had left its trainer’s lips, to stop the subsequent Crabhammer. 

Ash had Kingler keep up the abuse for the next two and a half minutes, slowly chipping away at the cloyster’s health and stamina.

But also unfortunately showing a great deal of fatigue on Kingler himself. 

Just as Ash was about to tell Kingler to leap back and try and crack the shell with a Hyper Beam before he fully exhausted himself his opponent came up with a possible strategy.

“Cloyster use Rapid Spin to get out of there!” 

Chips of ice flew up as the cloyster began to abruptly spin in place, pushing Kingler back as well. 

“Hyper Beam!” Was called out by both trainers, to the surprise of both, the golden energy rocketed forth from both pokemon and the audience collectively held their breath, bracing for impact.

And what an impact it was. The beams formed a sphere of competing energy swirling in the center for just a moment, sending a loud thrum throughout the stadium, before once more a vicious explosion rocked the arena. 

When the smoke finally cleared Kingler was standing while the shellfish pokemon lay on its side, fainted. 

“Red Trainer wins!” The referee declared. 

Ash finally allowed himself to take a breath at that declaration.

“Great job, Kingler!” He called out as the cloyster was withdrawn.

Pete’s next pokemon however, was a very unpleasant surprise.

“Awwoooo!” The massive, orange and black-furred, arcanine screamed out as it exited the pokeball.


	4. Bringing the Heat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ‘Is this aura?’ some have asked, the answer is… “Not yet.” This is my interpretation of how that ability and skill might show itself in its infancy. Before it is conscious or controlled. Also yes I am finding a way to justify the dearth of fully evolved pokemon, particularly ones counted as “rare” in the original games, in the first season of the anime.

“Kingler, break into the water, now!” Ash cried out before the arcanine’s chilling howl could even finish rippling throughout the arena. 

“Koo-ki!” Kingler grunted out as it hammered the ice beneath it. 

“Like I’ll let you!” Pete called out, “Arcanine, use Thunder Fang!” 

Electricity crackled around the lupine pokemon’s fangs.

“Pro-”

And then suddenly, between Ash’s syllables, the great beast simply appeared behind Kingler.

“-tect!” 

The fangs came down and the crustacean pokemon just barely got the shimmering green energy of his Protect shell in place to block the attack.

But Protect was a costly move to any pokemon without the highest tiers of stamina, Kingler’s next strike to try and break through the ice to retreat into the waters below was weaker and did not shatter the section of the arena he stood upon, completely open to the Arcanine’s next attack.

As the beast reared back for another strike, suddenly Kingler was surrounded by red energy that retreated back towards his trainer.

Ash had recalled Kingler, knowing that that strike was going to be the end of him.

With a deep breath Ash tuned out the referee and the announcer as he debated his next move.

He only had two, possibly three, pokemon who could keep up with the speed of an arcanine. Certainly only two with him at the moment. 

And one of them…

“Pikachu,” Ash began, “I don’t think your sister could manage on this terrain. You up for the challenge?”

Pikachu nodded solemnly and with a burst of Agility appeared upon the field.

“The pikachu?” Pete exclaimed, “I thought that was your mascot or something! That thing fights?”

Pikachu’s cheeks sparked dangerously in anger at the words and Ash’s eyes narrowed.

Monster of semi-legendary status or not, that arcanine was going down now.

“For clarification this pikachu is on record as having defeated Blaine’s Rhydon at the seven-badge tier of competition,” It appeared the announcer was a fan, as he chimed in to let the crowd know this was not in any way going to be an uneven match. 

That turned Ash’s grin almost feral, remembering that fight. Where Pikachu had finally mastered Iron Tail. 

“Blitz him, Pikachu!” 

The arcanine’s eyes widened as he was treated to a similar treatment to that he had done to the kingler earlier.

First the opponent was in front of him, then they were behind him.

The thing about the monstrous speed of an arcanine, was that they worked best in straight lines. Their turns were not especially tight.

So when the arcanine made to dodge Pikachu’s Slam attack it shot itself forward twenty meters.

Which was Pikachu and Ash’s exact plan. 

“Chu!” A lightning quick Thunderbolt shot out after the arcanine’s blurred and retreating form. 

“Awoo!” The bolt struck, though the fiery canine seemed barely the worse for wear. 

“It thinks it can outrun us? Fine, start blasting!” Pete’s annoyance at a pokemon he certainly viewed as weak getting even a single strike in shone through.

Pikachu did not need to be told to dodge the Fire Blast that came hurtling back over at him. 

Using Agility and Quick Attack he managed to dodge four consecutive Fire Blasts that rocketed to his locations.

That was when Ash noticed something.

The arena was being melted, and Pikachu was going to run out of places to stand if things kept on in that way too much longer.

“Confuse and stun, Pikachu!” Ash called out a combination he hoped would still be doable in this circumstance, hopefully it still had a chance as long as the last two jagged outcroppings of ice were left.

Pikachu flickered into a Double Team, spreading all of them around the remaining portions of the arena. 

As the arcanine blasted away three of the images Ash felt the blood begin to pound in his ears and the thrill of the battle began to take him.

As he allowed himself to ease in towards accepting the feeling he could almost say he felt where Pikachu was, just behind a jagged outcropping of ice on the left side of the arena, blocked from sight of both the arcanine and Pete.

“Now.” 

Ash was unsure if he thought or shouted the command. 

Either way Pikachu responded immediately. 

Ash could almost feel the build up of electrical charge in the air as Pikachu leapt from hiding and fired off a rippling wave of electricity at the canine pokemon.

“Woo?” The arcanine barked out in shock as the Thunder Wave struck. 

Sparks crackled along its fur as it seized up in minor paralysis. 

“Ka-Chu!” Pikachu continued the arc of his leap and at the peak he brought a large bolt of lightning down from the sky above in the form of a Thunder attack. The bolt slammed into the trapped arcanine, doing substantial damage. 

“Arcanine!” Pete yelled out in surprise, “You have to push it back, use Fire Spin!” 

The paralysis did not stop the beast’s movements fully, a whipping whirlwind of fire sprung up around him and flared outward, forcing Pikachu away from where he had been prepared to push his advantage. 

“He should slow down now, Pikachu!” Ash called out. 

Without even needing to finish his string of commands Pikachu, almost as if sensing his intentions, began circling the arcanine using Agility, leaping between remaining chunks of floating or steady ice, firing off quick but light Thundershocks and dispersing Double Team clones intermittently. 

The arcanine had functionally walled himself in, none of the remaining chunks or outcroppings were of a size for his bulk, and even as he attempted to fire off smaller Flamethrowers or ward Pikachu off with more Fire Spins his muscles kept seizing up and interrupting him, leaving openings for Pikachu as well. 

Again, reacting exactly as Ash himself had the idea that the arcanine was within finishing range, Pikachu charged up a stronger attack and let out a vicious Thunderbolt just as the paralysis once more halted the beast in its tracks. 

The blood pounded louder in his ears as he watched Pikachu’s attack slam into the arcanine and finally knock it out cold.

It took until the other pokemon was returned and Pikachu was once more at his side, breathing rather heavily, for Ash’s tunnel vision for the battle to leave and for him to once more hear the roaring of the crowd. 

And they had every reason to be cheering, not only was it a phenomenal match, but arcanine were rare. 

Most people in the crowd had never seen one in person before. A fire stone powerful enough to evolve a growlithe was itself rare, and there were only three other active arcanine in Kanto.

The head of the Kanto Police Force, which employed the Jennys, Blaine, and Professor Oak were the other three. 

Pete had either gotten very lucky in finding a stone, had connections and money, or was very skilled at cave (and particularly volcanic cave) spelunking. 

Ash absentmindedly rubbed Pikachu right underneath his chin, his favorite spot, as he looked around at the spectators.

Right there in the front: his mother, Misty, Togepi, and Brock were all cheering the loudest.   
However he noticed Togepi’s little tiny arms begin to wave and a mesmeric pattern. 

“Misty!” Ash yelled out and pointed at the little egg-shaped pokemon. 

She blinked and then realization hit and she picked the little guy up and gave his chin a tickle to ruin his admittedly accidental concentration. 

Ash sighed with relief and made his way over to the participants’ exit. 

Someone was waiting for him, and as his eyes cleared from the shift in lighting he noticed it was an old friend and rival.

“Hey, Gary,” He greeted with a grin, “See that match?” 

“Yeah, Ashy-boy, down two? You’re better than that! If you keep slipping I might not have any competition at all in this thing!” The boy actually let out a wild and taunting laugh with that statement. 

Long ago Ash might have gotten riled up and started throwing his own threats and taunts around wildly, but this Ash, the Ash that had fought side-by-side with Lance and Lorelai against Team Rocket?

This Ash laughed right back, “Oh come on, Gary! You know I’m saving most of my best for after the preliminaries! Pikachu’s the only one I’ve used! And that’s just because everyone sees him all the time!” 

That did in fact let a bit of the air out of Gary’s tires. 

“I suppose so, but if you had that much trouble against such a poorly trained arcanine, well let’s say I plan to have trained mine better!” 

That stopped Ash in his tracks. Gary’s blastoise, eevee, pidgeotto, kadabra, and rhyhorn were already very well trained and monsters in their own right. If he had gotten a fire stone to evolve that growlithe of his? 

Well Gary Oak’s team was certainly beginning to look like the team to beat. Plus he had plenty of extra pokemon at his grandfather’s laboratory and ranch which were strong if not on the same level to trip up any opposing planning. 

“I look forward to it, Gary! We’ll both have some surprises in the waiting it looks like!” 

His rival’s face showed surprise at that response, then it was followed by excitement. 

“You better use that charizard in our match, Ashy-Boy! I still owe him a turnaround for that little spar after it first evolved!” 

Ash held his hand out, “Even if someone else knocks you out, I’ll gladly do a rematch after the tournament!” 

Gary shoved him in a manner more friendly than mean, “Oh shut up, like that will happen! If anything I am the one that needs to worry about that!” 

They shared a laugh together at that, things had been rocky for them when they first started their journey. But after Grandpa Canyon Gary had slowly begun to respect Ash more and more.


	5. Blue Trainer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Secret Fire is In-Progress just was a bit too zonked from work to finish it. I will also be taking some inspiration from the Electric Tale of Pikachu comics, as those were very formative for me after finding the full set at a Flea Market as a child. Finally revealing the rest of Ash’s “A-team”.

Ash was striding towards the Rock Arena with Pikachu on his shoulder when he bumped into one of the other remaining rookie trainers, Ritchie.

“Hey there, Ash!” The green-clad boy called out, his own pikachu riding on his shoulder as well. 

Ash waved back at the boy, “Coming over to see Gary’s match as well?” He questioned.

Ritchie nodded in agreement, “Yep! Got to support our fellow newbies and scout out the competition ya know? I heard that he just evolved one of his pokemon!”

“Yeah, I heard he got his hands on a Fire Stone and evolved that growlithe of his, should be a good match!” Ash paused and then decided to ask the other trainer a question.

“Hey, you want to join my group to watch the match? Professor Oak is Gary’s grandfather and he’s got all of us up in a private box!” 

Ritchie’s eyes bulged out a little, “You mean I would get to meet THE Professor Oak?”

“And two gym leaders I suppose, but you’ve already met Brock and Misty in the past,” Ash added with a grin. 

Rubbing the back of his head sheepishly Ritchie responded, “Yeah, I suppose I have haven’t I? I guess they just seemed so normal, ya know? I didn’t make my way over to Pewter until Brock had left and Flint had taken back over! He was my third badge, so I had to go up against a graveler, a rhyhorn, and an onix!” 

Ash nodded, “Yeah I have gone up against the eight badge golem that is one of Flint’s, it was...well scary! Took out half my team before I got her to stay out!”

Ritchie whistled impressed, “Wow, there must be some big training benefits to hanging out with gym leaders, huh? Brock and Misty are on what their personal training sabbatical thing?” 

Ash nodded, “Yeah, with them both being legacy leaders the League wanted them to strengthen their personal teams up to standard. Last season they were using way too many family pokemon in higher tier matches or something like that,”.

“Oh yeah, Pewter, Cerulean, and...I think Celadon all had their family gyms grandfathered in, right?”

“Something weird like that yeah, I don’t really get it, I think the strongest trainers that want to should run gyms, but honestly they’ve maintained their position as Major Gyms, even if only barely, so Brock and the Sensational Sisters, including Misty, must have been doing something right to not drop down to Minor status!” 

Ritchie grinned over at Ash, “So you think Misty is sensational?”

That brought a blush to Ash’s face as they started heading up through the entrance way into the spectator portion of the arena, “Sh-shut up! I didn’t say that!” 

Ritchie and Sparky were still laughing in tandem by the time they arrived at the Oak Box.

“Oh, Ash! You brought a friend, how delightful!” Delia immediately commented.

“Uh, yeah, Mom! This is Ritchie, he’s another one of the rookies this year. We had a nice match out on Victory Road on our way to the starting ceremony! I hope all three of us rookie’s make it out of the preliminaries!”

“I’m not too sure, Ash,” Brock cut in, “Gary here is about to face off with someone that’s on their fourth season and if rumors have it, the Ace Trainers are looking to recruit her!” 

That startled Ash, “Wait, really? Ace? That’s impressive…”

It was at that moment that Professor Oak strode in, “Ah, sorry for being late, everyone. The League wanted to talk to me about the fallout of all that Rocket business,” He blinked at Ritchie’s presence, “Ah, you’re the other one. I’ve been very impressed by how well you’ve trained so many basic and stage one pokemon, lad. I daresay they may all be close to the peak of their species and stages, keep up the good work!” 

“Th-thank you, sir professor...umm Oak?” Ritchie stammered out sheepishly and Sparky began to laugh from his shoulder. 

As the laughter calmed down they all had to turn their attention to the start of the match. 

“Alright ladies and gentlemen! Boys and girls! Pokemon and pals! Time for the first match of the final round of the preliminaries here in the Rock Arena! We’ve got one of our radical rookies, the prodigal Gary Oak,” he paused for a blast of cheers from the audience.

“Versus the lovely, the brutal, a former quarter finalist, Melissa Morrow!” More cheers, she certainly had her own fans.

Both contestants waved to the audience, knowing how to play the crowd. 

“This is going to be great!” Ritchie said from next to him, as Ash slid in to the seats just above Brock and Misty and next to his mother. 

“Do you think Gary will use his newly evolved arcanine? As a growlithe it was already very strong, it might be a good lead to test out Melissa,” Ash questioned.

Ritchie nodded, “I’d definitely want to field test a newly evolved pokemon before the end of the preliminaries!” 

And indeed the first two pokemon who appeared were Gary’s arcanine and to the surprise of the crowd, a ninetales.

Ninetales were, to Ash’s knowledge, just as rare and semi-legendary as arcanine. While they were also very quick their status came mostly from their psychic powers which developed with the age of the ninetales.

They were not classified as Psychic-type due to the fact that they do not gain those powers easily upon evolution. 

They either had to develop naturally or be heavily trained.

And when Ash saw the match open by Gary’s arcanine getting put to sleep with a Hypnosis attack when he flickered and appeared in front of the ninetales for a Bite attack, Ash knew this ninetales was incredibly well trained. 

“That’s-” 

The Dream Eater attack that followed knocked the arcanine right out.

“Bad…” Ritchie finished for Ash.

They sat in stunned silence and Ash’s mind ran through how he would counter such an obviously powerful ninetales.

Either Aerodactyl to stay out of range of that Hypnosis and rain Rock-type moves down upon it or Wigglytuff to directly counter sleep with sleep, though that would be much more risky. 

But Wigglytuff had come far, earning her place as one of his six strongest team members. He remembered back when she was just a jigglypuff who couldn’t control her Sing attack! The third time they’d run into her he had captured her and begun training her in how to control her move. 

Now with the help of a Moon Stone he had gone back to beseech the clefairy of Mount Moon for she was a force to be reckoned with. 

But still, to have taken out an arcanine so easily...Ash wasn’t sure he could pull off a victory there. 

Gary wisely sent his blastoise, his starter, out to counter the powerful ninetales. 

And yet, while he got a solid Aqua Jet in and used a Rapid Spin to disrupt a Hypnosis attempt, the blastoise was still knocked around by an Extrasensory and a Solar Beam.

The increased sunlight from the ninetales’s presence had obviously allowed a quicker charge time on that move. 

And just like that, with only getting a few attacks in, Gary was down to his last pokemon, his nidoking. 

Not the best combatant against a pokemon that could use Psychic-type moves, but perhaps his last one that was strong and had a few of its own super-effective moves for the circumstance.

He got lucky, the ninetales mistimed her increased sunlight and had gone in for another Solar Beam to hopefully blind the nidoking and set up for a solid psychic hit. The sunlight faded just as charging began and nidoking was able to land a vicious Earthquake.

And then Melissa smirked as she returned her ninetales, “That was a cute little aftershock, rookie!” She said, “But how about I show you a real Earthquake?”

The golem she sent out was a massive and rugged looking specimen, looking to be the apex of its already massive and rugged species. 

And boy had it heard its trainer’s command even as it was materializing, because it slammed into the field with massive force from where she had summoned it about six feet up, and the field just exploded.

Fissures, shards of rock, dust, and dirt flew all over, bouncing off of the barriers protecting the audience, who all cheered loudly at the display. 

Miraculously, Gary’s nidoking began to struggle back up onto his feet as the dust cleared.

“Aww, he still thinks he has a chance. Teach him otherwise, Mega Punch!” 

Well, Ash thought as a glowing fist slammed into the nidoking’s guy, that would be why the announcer mentioned her brutality. 

“The winner is, Melissa!” 

The crowd went wild one last time. 

“I specialize in Rock-types,” Brock began, “That golem...wow, he reminds me of my...Flint’s golem,”.

Misty nodded, “I almost want to say poor Gary, she might end up taking the entire thing!” 

“Yes, it is no wonder that the Ace Trainers are looking to recruit her after the tournament. Being a Ranger during the off-seasons has truly sharpened Melissa since I gave her her starter four years ago!” Professor Oak chimed in.

“Oh?” Delia turned her head towards the professor, “She’s one of yours?” 

“Indeed! I am sure it’s no secret due to footage of her old tournament matches, but she truly raised her bulbasaur into a fighter! She is certainly one of the trainers I have sponsored in recent years I am most proud of,” Oak explained.

“That ninetales was something else, too!” 

The conversation continued that way for a while as Ash contemplated that massive show of force. Melissa had obviously been using her B-team for the prior rounds but had decided to either start using her main team in the final round of the preliminary or had brought them out specifically to shut down Gary. Either due to his rookie status or his semi-celebrity status of being related to Oak. 

Yes, stomping the kid who was considered to be both of a lineage of strong trainers and was considered a contender for Rookie of the Year would definitely shoot her to celebrity status herself.

As the announcer had said, she was vicious. 

Ash would have two days of a break to come up with strategies if he won his match in the Grass Arena later today. 

I, Ash thought to himself, am going to have to push myself to even stand a chance.

Ash waved off his concerned seeming friends and walked off to take the long way back to the trainer lodgings.

So later today he would use Butterfree, Pidgeotto, and make sure he had Gloom, Pikachu, Muk, and Primeape on him as a flexible final pokemon if needed. 

Obviously he was using Pikachu, Charizard, and Aerodactyl after the preliminaries. His match, likely against Ritchie, would be just three pokemon however, and a part of him really wanted to match their similar pokemon up against each other.

So he’d bring Kingler, Butterfree, Pikachu, Pidgeotto, Charizard, and either Kangaskhan or Wigglytuff to that match. 

To pair against Ritchie’s strongest known pokemon of a tentacool, a butterfree, his pikachu, Sparky, a newly evolved fearow, a charmeleon, and an eevee. 

But after that, it would be Pikachu, Charizard, Aerodactyl, Pikachu’s sister Kangaskhan, and Wigglytuff. He was worried about his final slot, he was leaning towards Dragonair, but she had just evolved after everything with Team Rocket and was still getting used to her weather powers. He could instead use Kingler or Tauros. 

Dragonair’s flexibility was very appealing however. 

Well, Ash thought to himself as he walked up to his lodging, I’ll figure it out after I beat...Janet? Jeanie? I cannot remember this girl’s name.


	6. Moving Up the Bracket

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Pokemon just requires a lot less research for me than the TES stories so while I will still do my best to get an SF or a VoH chapter done on my days off we’ll likely see more of this story frequency-wise while I am swamped at work. Slightly shorter chapter, but I felt that we’ve seen a lot of Ash’s mindset now so I just wanted to focus on his grass-type and setting up the Ritchie match.

Gloom, Ash reflected, had grown a lot from the small little oddish that had elected to tag along with him after he and his team had saved a small pokemon sanctuary from Team Rocket. 

While at the time Ash had half-hoped that the guardian bulbasaur would join when he made the open offer for any pokemon that had finished healing and wanted a trainer to come along with him in the end it had only been the little oddish he had saved directly from Team Rocket with Bulbasaur’s help who wanted to come along.

He had not regretted it even once since then. 

Lt. Surge had decided to take Ash seriously as a third-badge challenger and the battle had been two versus two at the Vermillion City Gym. 

Oddish had evolved into Gloom fighting Surge’s voltorb and had even gotten a single Stun Spore to land on the following raichu, allowing Pikachu to come in and easily take the win. 

While Gloom wouldn’t be on Ash’s top six until he found a Leaf or Sun Stone, and from how she acted Ash was pretty sure she would prefer the Sun Stone, Gloom was one of his most solid and reliable companions for testing out opponents.

And as a Stun Spore landed on Jeanette’s beedrill in the first battle of their match, Ash grinned. 

Gloom’s secondary poison-typing would allow her to not be as wounded by the bug-type moves like Twineedle that were being fired at her early on.

“Pelt it with Acid!” Ash called out, waiting for the moment to set up his real win condition for this battle, and hopefully the entire match. 

They exchanged their attacks in volleys for a few more brief moments before the beedrill seized up in paralysis.

Ash grabbed the moment, “Growth!” 

Gloom paused for a moment to collect sunlight within her body, bolstering her attack power of all types. While they had yet to push the technique into Solar Beam, Gloom could still use the stored energy for her other attacks.

“Sludge Bomb!” A massive globule of toxic sludge shot out of the center of her flower, a technique she had perfected courtesy of Muk, and slammed into the beedrill knocking it out cold. 

The scyther Jeanette sent out next did not fare any better. While it was able to dodge some of the spores, a surprise Toxic caught it and she was able to finish it off similarly. 

“That’s it!” Jeanette yelled, “Come on out! Arbok!” 

Gloom might have been able to stalemate the rather powerful snake if she were at full power and rested. 

But unfortunately she was not the quickest combatant, and the snake was able to use a powerful Glare to stun her long enough to land a vicious Ice Fang without her spores ever touching it. 

With a sigh Ash returned her to her pokeball, “You did great, Gloom! And your buddy is going to finish this for you!” 

Ash had thought he would use Primeape or Pidgeotto here if Gloom fell, but he was glad he had brought another option along, because it would be perfect. 

“Get out and show them what you can do, Muk!” 

The viscous and sludgey purple pokemon appeared with a gurgle in front of the snake. 

The snake immediately, not even waiting for directions from its trainer, took to burrowing underground with a Dig.

Unfortunately, while a good super-effective option, it gave Muk time to fortify himself.

“Acid Armor! And you know what to do when it comes up!” It was hard to tell from a distance, but Muk subtly changed its body composition to be less solid and more permeable. 

On top of meaning physical attacks would bounce around or pass through, it also meant that he would leech his toxins out more easily, though against an arbok that was not as important. 

What was important however, was the second part of Ash’s command.

Because as the arbok shot up and slammed into Muk’s body from underneath it got caught in the liquified body and as it thrashed its way out a special mix of Muk’s toxins, his stench, and the natural pseudo-psychic power of the Disable technique hit it. 

“Dig again!” Jeannette commanded, not realizing what had happened. 

The arbok thrashed around and hit its head into the ground to burrow in, but seemingly could not summon up the energies required to easily move the earth.

“Mud Bomb!” Ash called out, and Muk instead of gathering its own mass like it would for a Sludge Bomb, pulled up sloppy mud from the area under his liquified body and hurled it out at the arbok, slamming into it and sending it tumbling. 

“Arbok?” Jeannette called out in confusion, then she steeled herself and came up with a new plan of action, “Use Ice Fang again!” 

Ash thought that perhaps she was going to attempt to see if she could inflict some kind of secondary effect on Muk, but he wasn’t going to let her try.

Instead, he was going to command Muk to use the technique that had been the real reason he had brought him along as a backup for this fight, “Flamethrower!” 

It had taken a lot of work with Charizard to figure the technique out for Muk, but, as flames billowed forth from Muk’s massive maw at the very much surprised snake, Ash reflected that it had been well worth the effort. 

“Oof! And with that I think we can call the match! Ash of Pallet Town is the winner!” The announcer called out as the referee raised his flag.

And just like that, Ash was through the preliminaries and on to the real battles. 

The next match would be against Ritchie if he won his match later that day. 

And indeed, a few hours later as Ash picked up his pokemon from the pokemon center, Ritchie was there to drop his off.

“Hey Ash!” Ritchie greeted him. 

As he seemed happy Ash grinned back at him, “So you won then?” 

The other boy nodded, “Sure did! Looks like it’s going to be us next in the first of the real fights, huh?” 

“Well, the first out of the prelims! They’re still not doing six on six until the round after, which is a pity, I’d love to go full party in our fight!” 

“True!” Ritchie responded, but then he grinned, “However it does let us do something really fun for our fight, and I know it’s something you’ve thought of too! And since Zippo just evolved...how about a mirror match?” 

Ash was floored, Ritchie had a charizard now, too? And the other rookie was right, Ash had been wondering how Butterfree would fare against Happy and how Pikachu would do against Sparky. 

But Zippo against Charizard? That was asking for a disaster on Ritchie’s part.

“Are you sure?” Ash said a little carefully, “I mean Zippo just evolved, and Charizard has been in his new form for...gosh months now!” 

Ritchie nodded, “Absolutely! Zippo spent a lot more time as a charmeleon than yours did, Ash! That middle-form counts for a lot in regards to some development, and I’m confident it will still be a fair fight!” 

Ash thought about it for a moment and then nodded in response, “Sure! Shake on it?”

They shook, and the agreement was made. Their next match would be a mirror match. And one of them would be going home knowing that the other had raised their pokemon better.


	7. Mirror Match

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How do you guys think I should handle some flashback chapters to show major points of divergence? For example I was going to do a flashback to some of the referenced Rocket interactions that are a mix of Let’s Go and Anime incidents. Would we want that to be a full chapter between non-prelim rounds? Or would we want me to start a separate flashback fic? Also disclaimer: There will be no spoilers for Journeys other than some minor easter eggs and the expanded backstory for Ash and Pikachu with that Pokemon Camp Field Trip in the first episode.

“Are we ready to rumble, Kanto?” The announcer called out to which the crowd responded with a rumbling roar of approval.

“We’re here tonight to see the first match of the final bracket for this year’s Indigo League competition! The winner of it all gets an exhibition match against a single member of the Elite Four of their choice, fifty-thousand Pokedollars, and so. Much. GLORY!” 

He yelled out that last part and the crowd once more roared in response.

“So now that we’re into the big leagues I’d like to introduce a special guest commentator! Guaranteed to give us some special insight into these matches is a former Champion himself, Professor Samuel Oak!” 

If it were possible Ash could swear the crowd got even louder.

“It’s a pleasure to be here to give my insight,” Oak’s voice came over the speakers, “As I sponsored two of the trainers in these final rounds, I have to say it’s looking to be a good tournament! Even trainers that are new to me seem to be phenomenal and caring trainers who have brought out nothing but the best in their partners!” 

“So there we have it folks! Let’s introduce our first battlers! The dynamic rookie duo, battling it out for the rookie of the year title! Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, sponsored by Professor Oak right next to me! And Ritchie Jayne of Frodomar City!” 

The crowd once more rumbled and Ash felt his blood heating in excitement. 

“Before we begin, any special insight, Professor?”

“Indeed! I have known Ash since he was a little boy, and he’s always had exceptional enthusiasm, luckily his journey has tempered that into determination and drive as opposed to the reckless little boy I saw grow up in Pallet! And furthermore, I have a very special announcement that Ash told me. He and Ritchie both have a butterfree, a pikachu, and a charizard on their teams. And they made an agreement that this will be a mirror match to see who raised those pokemon of identical species the best!” 

Ash and Ritchie grinned at each other as the crowd let their excitement at that prospect be known. 

Crowds were always down for a good gimmick or themed match. 

“And as we’ve seen folks, looks can be deceiving with these two! We’ve seen both pikachus for these trainers take on pokemon many times their size and fully evolved ones too and come out on top! And then to see a charizard match will be one for the record books everybody! But without further ado! Let’s fight!”

Ash and Ritchie immediately released their butterfree onto the field. 

The field was an interesting mix, in the spirit of being fair to pokemon of all types.

The center crosswise had a field of grass with a few cemented wooden posts to simulate trees. The sides nearest each trainer were rocky terrain with various boulders and dirt types. And then, along the outer edge of the arena, was a lazy river with a few floating platforms moving languidly along. 

Butterfree and Happy both appeared on their own trainers’ respective sides of the grassy portion. 

“Poison Powder!” Ritchie called out immediately.

“Behind a post!” Ash called out, “Then dance for us!” 

Butterfree dodged around the powder which splashed harmlessly against the post that Butterfree wove behind to begin moving in an interesting and elegant pattern, twirling upwards in a final flourish.

“Quiver Dance?!” Ritchie exclaimed, it was a high end bug-type technique which significantly boosted speed and fighting ability. 

“Cover the area with Stun Spore! You have to catch him, Happy!” 

With a trill the butterfree shot up into the air and attempted to blanket the area in a paralytic powder. 

Butterfree however zipped and zagged around the field avoiding every cloud.

“So Quiver Dance is a powerful move for the butterfree line?” The announcer questioned, though Ash was so focused on the match that he did not hear the commentary between the announcer and the professor. 

“Indeed! There are two common ways to raise a butterfree into a powerful battler. Quiver Dance is the move that allows speed and power of the pokemon to be boosted to high enough levels to compete far above its normal weight class. The other way is to use the status powders moves and moves such as Whirlwind or Air Slash to inconvenience and cripple opponents and set up for your own pokemon that pack a more powerful punch to finish the job off!” 

“I never realized they were such versatile bugs!” 

“Oh yes, while scyther and pinsir get more attention for their sheer speed or physical power I would say that the butterfree-line are the most versatile bug-types natural to the Kanto region!” 

Ash knew that his problem in a butterfree mirror match was that his was a powerful special sweeper, but his only move that would be super-effective, or even effective at all, was going to be the paltry Gust. He really needed to try and make sure that Butterfree could upgrade that to Air Slash soon. 

Which was what the Quiver Dance was to make up for, “Now, Butterfree!” He called out as his first capture twirled elegantly behind the other butterfree, “Gust!”

A hard burst of wind rustled out of Butterfree’s wings and slammed into the back of his foe sending Happy tumbling towards the ground. 

Happy caught himself just before he hit the ground and hovered for a moment, as Butterfree began to swoop down into position for another empowered Gust.

“Your turn, Happy! Whirlwind the ground!” Ritchie commanded, to Ash’s initial confusion and then dawning horror.

“Up! Back up, Butterfree!” 

But it was too late, even as Butterfree tried to climb back into the air the Whirlwind hit the ground and sent the potent cocktail of multiple different types of powders and spores up into the air, straight into Butterfree’s path.

The poor butterfly pokemon couldn’t fight through a mix of Sleep, Poison, and Stun Powders and fell straight to the ground. 

Ash returned him, a bit of frustration at falling into that trap directed at himself. 

“That was a big Gust that hit Happy,” Ritchie called out across the field, “He can’t even touch Pikachu like this, I’m pulling him back,” and he recalled his pokemon as well.

“Pikachu versus Sparky it is then!” Ash called back over, as his starter took the prompt and leapt onto the field. 

Each pikachu landed lightly on their respective sides of the field, cheeks sparking with electrical current. 

“Light Screen!” Ritchie commanded just as Ash called out, “Agility!” 

Both pikachu began their openers. 

Ritchie favored setting up defensive screens and then going in for paralysis or big shocking finishers, it allowed him to set up for his future pokemon as well as let Sparky last longer in battle himself.

However he was not prepared for Ash and Pikachu to insead of powerful special electric attacks, have specialized in speed and close contact fighting. 

“Double Kick!” With a blur Pikachu was suddenly in Sparky’s face, giving him a quick one-two combination of kicks he had learned and specialized in working with his sister, Kangaskhan. 

Sparky tumbled backwards, head over tail twice before righting himself and skidding back another few feet. 

“I think we need Reflect, instead!” Ritchie barked out, but just as Sparky began to gather the energy for the screen, Pikachu was on him again with a lightning fast Quick Attack.

“I guess we don’t have time! Try and match his speed with your own Agility!” 

The next few minutes of the match showed two yellow blurs ricocheting around the field and the wooden pillars playing a high speed game of cat and mouse. 

“Uh...is that normal, Professor?”

The old man chuckled, “Oh not at all, Ash’s pikachu is in my opinion the epitome of the species. I hazard a guess that it will be a Champion-level pokemon someday, once it evolves. We all saw him take that arcanine on almost from being fully battle ready! This feisty little guy never even took a full hit! I won’t reveal any of his secrets but Ash has trained this pikachu for speed and flexibility, able to engage the foe at any distance!” 

Occasionally a Thundershock or Thunderbolt would shoot out from Sparky, or Pikachu would almost make contact with Double Kick or Quick Attack and dirt would spray up or splinters would fly off of pillars where Sparky had been just a millisecond before. 

As the game continued Ash and Pikachu, unbeknownst to all around them, began to slowly have their breathing and heartbeats synchronize. Ash’s heart beat faster and faster, until by all accounts he should have been having some sort of medical malfunction.

And yet he was not. Instead he could almost sense the air pressure around him. The particle build-up of every burst of electricity. The flicker of every piece of static coming off of the fur of the twin pikachu fighting it out in front of him.

“We can’t win with electricity!” Ritchie once more called out to his pokemon, “Use Uproar!” 

That surprised Ash, Ritchie must have pitched most of his money into that Technical Machine, as he was fairly certain that only his spearow, no wait, freshly evolved fearow, could even reasonably learn that attack. And fearow were not known for their patience and ability to teach other teammates their moves.

Just as Ash was about to call out his command, he saw Pikachu launch into exactly what he had been about to say. 

Pikachu quickly flipped around, back facing Sparky, and slammed a vicious Iron Tail into the ground. Not only kicking up clods of dirt to insulate from the burst of noise, but also to dig into the ground and stop Pikachu from being sent flying into one of the wooden posts in the arena. 

The secret, Ash had considered on many occasions, to how well he was doing in his first year as a trainer was that he did not consider himself better, smarter, or above his pokemon partners. His training involved himself as much as his pokemon, and he trained them all together as a team. Showing each other their moves, seeing if their friends could also learn anything similar. They were a family, they had healthy friendly competition, and it just so happens that he was the one who could speak Human so it was his job to organize it all. 

Iron Tail as well as Pikachu’s sheer proficiency with Double Kick were signs of that. Both skills were learned from other pokemon on his or his companions’ teams. 

Over the previous few months, even though Misty and Brock being gym leaders on sabbatical had had pre-established training methods, the amicable and familial nature of Ash’s had rubbed off on them. After they had returned to shore from the dragonite flock saving them from the SS Anne sinking both of his friends had wholeheartedly joined in with Ash’s version of training, but had also brought their own knowledge base in, which further improved his technique. 

Which is why Ash smirked almost out of characteristically viciously when Ritchie gaped in disbelief as Pikachu somehow went from grounded in front of Sparky, to delivering that same Iron Tail that had been assumedly weighing Pikachu down, into the back of Sparky’s head. 

“I think that might be it, Ritchie!” Ash called out, “Sparky came here ready for a shooting match, but you guys got a brawl instead!” 

The other boy sighed, “Yeah I guess you’re right, Ash. I was hoping to actually do some damage, but Pikachu is unreal. Do you train him with that primeape of yours or something?” 

He recalled Sparky, who was struggling to stand up as the world likely wobbled around to his eyes. 

“Amongst other team members that we might see if Charizard beats Zippo, come back Pikachu, Charizard would never forgive me if we softened Zippo up for him. That relationship is worth more than the victory, I’m sure you know how testy they can get with their pride, Ritchie?” He directed the last bit at his opponent as Pikachu zipped back up by his side. 

Ritchie nodded, “Yeah, I figured that’s why we were doing them last, also to build anticipation in the crowd,” He pointed to the crowd that was almost to a one on the edge of their seats.

Ash realized he had been so in the zone that he had tuned them out entirely. 

“Yes, you heard it folks! It’s time for the part of this match we’ve all been waiting for! Charizard versus charizard! A match-up not usually seen outside of Elite-level battles!”

“While Ash’s charizard has been evolved for longer, Ritchie’s spent much more time in the charmeleon stage, which is a very important stage for learning to control its fire and rage! This should be a fascinating match!” Professor Oak chimed in.

With a grin both boys palmed their pokeballs, and unleashed fire upon the field. 

It reminded Ash of the first time he’d seen Charizard truly let loose. When he’d blown a hole in the side of the Silph Co building as Giovanni attempted to escape. 

Both charizards appeared tail flames huge and smoke roiling out from their nostrils, they’d been appraised of the situation and both had their blood hot for battle. 

Ash could almost swear he felt his own blood heat to match Charizard’s at the prospect of this fight. 

It was immediately obvious that there were staggering differences between the two charizards. 

Ash’s charizard stood near the top of the range for height and weight for the species in its early years. Charizard was clearly almost six feet tall, neck stretched out, and a heaping mass of two-hundred and ten pounds of pure muscle packed onto its frame. His wingspan was near the same as his height and they were much thicker in muscle near the base than his opposite on Ritchie’s side of the field. 

But even though it was newly evolved, one could tell that Zippo was built for speed. Though he was shorter and thinner, a close inspection would show that the muscles on Zippo’s legs and neck were no less powerful than Charizard’s, merely very lean. 

His head was also sharper and more triangular with smaller horns jutting out the back. 

“Ah,” Oak said as the pseudo-dragons growled at each other in fury.

“This may be a bit of a repeat of the previous match. Seeing both Charizard and Pikachu back to back makes me think that I need to check the rest of Ash’s team and make sure he is not overspecializing in pure physical prowess. Not every pokemon species is made to participate in close quarters combat. Though I will admit a charizard is one of the species that can participate in every type of combat! They are fighters and will learn how to fight in any way necessary,”.

Indeed, Zippo immediately launched himself into the air as Charizard rocketed forward, gliding along near the ground to go in for an immediate Wing Attack, wings glowing white. 

When he realized that Zippo was moving up, he instead had his leg begin to glow and pushed off from the ground with both his legs and wings to send himself whirling Mega Kick first into the smaller dragon.

With a womp followed by a rush of air from Zippo’s lungs the charizard was launched further into the air and his foe beat his wings languidly and began to follow. 

“Zippo!” Ritchie cried out in surprise and horror. He had thought that greater control of his fire and rage from his time as a charmeleon might balance the scales. But he was starting to believe he may have been dramatically incorrect in that assessment. 

He racked his brain for a solution and came up with one that should at least distract and deflect Charizard’s oncoming onslaught. 

“Fire Spin!” As soon as Zippo caught his breath he also shot his wings out straight and spiralling flames came from his mouth, twisting down upon the approaching Charizard. 

Ash covered his eyes with his hands to block out the light, “Charizard!” He called out, “Shatter it with Dragon Rage!” 

“Meet it with your own!” Ritchie called out.

And suddenly the spiralling tunnel of flame shot apart as blue flames poured into it from both ends and exploded. Sending orange and blue embers down upon the field which quickly was set alight in its grassy center. 

Charizard’s bulky served him well, as he came out of the explosion with much better stability. 

The few seconds it took Zippo to right himself from the force of the blast was all Charizard needed to close the distance and land a vicious Crunch attack on his shoulder. 

“Zippo!” Ritchie once more called out to his pokemon, “Try and get him off! Smokescreen into his face!” 

In spite of the billowing smoke rushing down into his face, Charizard simply shut his eyes and relied on something else to keep him oriented in an upward direction as each downward sweep of his wings took him and Zippo higher and higher. 

Ash felt his blood boil as the hyper focus took over and he noted their positioning in the sky. 

Once they got just above the top edge of the stadium he whispered, “Now,”.

There was no way Charizard could have possibly heard him, and yet he somehow did exactly as Ash wished.

His arms moved from around Zippo’s waist to underneath his armpits and they began to spin and suddenly they flipped over and were dive bombing back towards the ground.

Ritchie, desperate for any sort of escape, called out seemingly random attacks, “Air Slash, Heat Wave, do something to escape, Zippo!”

To Zippo’s credit he truly tried. Gashes of air shot out from his wings, poorly aimed and disintegrating without going very far, and just before they hit the ground a rippling wave of heat and fire shot off from his body, attempting to scorch Charizard into letting go.

And Charizard did let go, but it was only when he planned to all along. He was able to pull up out of the drop as he sent Zippo careening into the ground in the finale of a vicious Seismic Toss. 

Charizard landed and stood over Zippo as the dust cleared. 

And Zippo, once more to his credit as a powerful fighter, began to stand up.

A final Thunder Punch, courtesy of training with Primeape, ended the idea of resistance. 

With a shaking hand Ritchie returned his pokemon.

“You win, Ash. I...wow even if we hadn’t chosen to do the mirror match, I’m not sure anyone I have could stand up to Pikachu and Charizard! I thought we were evenly matched, I was so wrong. Good job, man,”. 

Ash felt bad to see his friend get his spirits crushed like that, and worse to be the one to do it.

But he’d been through fire and flame and storm with his pokemon. 

They’d earned the victory.


	8. Fossil Fury Flashbacks

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here we go! Flashback chapter between tournament rounds! I know a lot of y’all were wondering about how some of his Team Rocket interactions played out.

Laying in his bed that night, with Pikachu sleeping across his chest, he thought back on one of his earlier battles using Butterfree, where he had still utilized his skills in a way much more reminiscent of how Ritchie used Happy’s skills. 

Just after Brock had decided to set out with Ash and Misty through Mount Moon and onto Cerulean as part of his own training sabbatical, now that he had found his father to cover the gym for the season for him, they had come across trouble. 

It had been pure luck that allowed Ash, Brock, and Misty to stumble across the Team Rocket operation to steal fossils inside of Mount Moon. 

A mix of luck and the Rockets getting greedy. For as well as fossils they had found the site of the Mount Moon clefairy colony and the Moon Stone that they worshipped. 

Being consummate thieves bent on national or perhaps even world domination they had decided to stay after achieving their goal of the fossils and attempt to capture as many clefairy, clefable, and Moon Stone shards as possible. 

The noise of a confrontation between three Rockets and the colony had drawn the company deeper into the mountain than they had initially planned to travel. 

They had walked right into a bunch of poison-type pokemon being used by the Rockets to corral the fairy pokemon into a capture zone. 

A large burly man in the stereotypical Rocket uniform was commanding a grimer and pinsir from one side, while a man and woman with outlandishly bright hair on the both of them were commanding a koffing and ekans nearby as a meowth looked on. 

“Ash!” Brock shouted out, “I think the big guy is the leader, can you hold these two off while Misty and I take care of him?”

The older boy had already palmed a pokeball as he asked the question, Ash nodded, looking at the two possibly three pokemon he would face.

“I think we can handle this!” He palmed Butterfree’s pokeball as Pikachu leapt ahead letting out a powerful Thundershock, taking the ekans by surprise. 

“Hey!” The blue haired Rocket shouted as he turned to see them.

“It’s that twerp from the Pokemon Center and the Forest!” The redheaded woman yelled. 

“Oh great,” Ash called out, “I have to fight you guys again?” He knew he needed to keep their attention on him so that Brock and Misty could go fight who Ash now knew was definitely the leader, as these two bumbling fools couldn’t lead their way out of a paper bag. 

“Shut it you little brat!” The woman called out and her ekans reoriented to face Pikachu.

“Jessie! They’re going for the Sarge!” The other one called out, but before his koffing could interfere with Misty and Brock’s progress Ash released Butterfree right in front of the toxic orb. 

“Confusion!” Ash called out and the small burst of psychic power from the butterfly sent the koffing spinning away into the air a few feet. 

“Grr...ignore it, James! Sergeant Cliff can take out some snobby pukes!” The woman snapped back, “Poison Sting!” She commanded the snake to attack Pikachu.

The needles rocketed out but hit only air and dust as Pikachu used his new Quick Attack to both dodge out of the way and ricochet off of the tunnel wall to slam into the side of the ekans. 

It was however, Ash’s first double battle, and he was having difficulty keeping his attention on all four pokemon.

“Free!” Butterfree called out as he was hit by a Sludge attack from the koffing. 

Ash’s attention snapped back over, “Oh no! Butterfree! Don’t worry buddy, shake it off and hit him with a Sleep Powder!” 

Luckily for Ash his opponent, while being just as flashy, was not actually the brightest bulb in the box and did not see the danger until it was too late and the cloud of status powder was sweeping over his pokemon. 

Ash grinned as the ball of toxic gases passed right out and needed to be returned. 

“Now Butterfree, move in and help Pikachu by using Confusion on the ekans!” 

“James you idiot!” Jesse called out as her pokemon was attacked from both directions. 

“Uggh, we’ve gotta blast, quick Meowth! Sand Attack!” 

The meowth leapt into the fight, sending a burst of cave dust up temporarily blinding Ash and his pokemon.

By the time they wiped their eyes clear the trio was gone and Ash and Misty were finishing off the fight against the burly Rocket member.

“You damned punks!” The man bit out, “Fine, I’ll just take what we had and vamoose!” As he turned to leave however Misty’s staryu caught the straps of his sack with a Swift attack, causing it to fall to the ground as he escaped. 

Brock walked over and picked it up, checking the contents. 

“It looks like they got a few fossils and some...are these Moon Stones? Wow!” 

Ash and Misty immediately ran over to look at the haul. 

However as they did so a clefable walked over and motioned with her arms and paws. 

“Ah,” Brock said, “She’s right, these do belong to the pokemon living here more than us,”.

However after he handed the bag over the clefable did not immediately take back off into the dark recesses of the cave, instead she rummaged through it and pulled out two fossils and a single shard of Moon Stone and presented those items to the trio.

“Really?” Ash remarked in surprise, “Thank you!” 

That was how Brock gained his Dome Fossil, Misty her Helix Fossil, and Ash his Moon Stone. At Professor Oak’s prompting Brock and Misty would later send their fossils off to a lab on Cinnabar Island and receive the fossil pokemon kabuto and omanyte in return. Ash used the Moon Stone to evolve Jigglypuff into Wigglytuff just before his own match with Blaine, when she had finally learned to fully control her Sing skill and expressed interest in the evolution.

In fact, Ash fully planned to make use of her in the coming battles. The specialized fields had not necessarily lent themselves to her abilities, she was more of a generalist, though if his opponents had used other pokemon he had prepared to use her on both the Grass and Rock field if need had arisen. 

Thinking back to both Team Rocket and fossils however reminded him of another memory. When Team Rocket had attacked Grandpa Canyon in a second attempt to collect pokemon fossils. 

Fighting Team Rocket Grunts, particularly Jessie and James, had become rout to Ash. They’d come across and with Brock and Misty’s credentials as active, even if they were on leave, gym leaders, they’d gone in and disrupted Rocket operations on the SS Anne, the Safari Zone, and Lavender Tower by now. 

The lickitung Jessie had captured in the Safari Zone before they interrupted that operation had been giving Charmeleon some trouble, as the tongue was a long range and very physical weapon. 

But then a Seed Bomb from James’s victreebel, which was engaged with Pikachu, blew a hole in the wall of the cave they had fallen into.

Straight into another cavern, one housing a hibernating aerodactyl. 

Ash would admit it only to Pikachu in the future, but he had never been more terrified than when that great hulking ancient dragon took him in its talons and soared off into the air. 

And just as Pikachu’s screams of fear fell off in the distance and he began to lose hope, a massive, earth-shattering roar echoed through the canyons in the direction they had flown from.

Turn his head Ash saw a glorious plume of fire jet up into the air, shortly followed by a small orange figure. 

“He did it!” Ash yelled out gleefully. He had been wondering when Charmeleon was going to evolve. Because even though he had only just recently evolved after their gym battle with Koga, Charmeleon had immediately shown all the signs of a speedier than typical evolution. Thickening horn ready to split, powerful tail flame, and shoulders bulking up to prepare for flight. 

And there he was, in furious glory.

Charizard.

His newly evolved partner closed the gap in distance with surprising speed for a pokemon new to flight. 

The aerodactyl kidnapper let out a strange mix of a squawk and a roar as it dodged a jet of a Flamethrower attack.

“Charizard!” Ash called out, “You have to get closer and get me out before you can throw fire around!” 

While Charizard did not fully heed the warning, Ash did notice that the next attack was an Ember instead, and sent high, likely to attempt to stop the aerodactyl from flying any higher.

Smart, Ash thought to himself, Charizard isn’t completely consumed by his rage like often happens on evolution. 

And then the aerodactyl squeezed a little tighter as it executed a quick maneuver to avoid another small burst of flames. 

“Oof!” Ash let out as he lost most of the air in his lungs and diaphragm. 

“Ch-Charizard!” He bit out through gasps, “Use Iron Tail and then catch me! I trust you!” 

It was then that a feeling he had only had happened with Pikachu and Primeape before overcame him as he braced himself for the impact. 

His heartbeat and pulse both changed, and he could feel Charizard’s rage and frustration. His desire to protect. And the movement of his wings. And the sensation of flight.

It was overwhelming. But also, Ash somehow knew that Charizard could also feel what he did, feel how out of breath he was, feel the fear of falling from such a height, feel the fear of leaving his friends behind. 

But most of all he and Charizard could both innately sense the physical location of the other. 

So when Charizard’s tail slammed into the aerodactyl, Ash was ready at the moment of impact. 

And when the claws released and Ash began to fall, Charizard was already executing an aerial maneuver allowing him to spin around the aerodactyl’s flailing body and come out just below the creature to catch his trainer in his arms. 

With a roar of pride and accomplishment he swooped down towards the ground and as the connection fell apart Ash got a full impression of his companion’s intent.

As he was placed on the craggy ground of the canyon he looked up at his fiery pokemon, “Go get him, boy!” 

With a curt nod Charizard shot back up into the air. 

Both now unburdened of Ash the two fearsome and draconic beasts ripped into each other in a manner that left Ash horrified. 

Other than a single opening blast, Charizard decided to entirely forego his Flamethrower, instead opting for Bite, Rage, and Iron Tail. 

Meanwhile the aerodactyl struck back with Wing Attacks, its own Bite attacks, and even a Supersonic in an attempt to confuse and enrage Charizard into hurting himself. 

Ash followed the combat at a jog a good distance back, simply trying to make sure he did not lose them.

Because even though he had been terrified by the creature that did not mean, he thought to himself as he palmed his one Great Ball, that he would not try and catch it if Charizard beat it down. 

And surely enough, just as Ash started to truly catch up with them a bloodied Charizard slammed a vicious Iron Tail into the head of the aerodactyl, stunning it long enough for the fiery lizard to grapple it, swing them both around and slam it into the earth with a shattering Seismic Toss. 

Ash’s arm flew up in front of his face as dust rolled out in a wave, after a few moments it had settled enough that he could remove his arm and clearly see a bloodied and heavily breathing Charizard standing victorious atop the unconscious form of the aerodactyl.

Ash’s other arm snapped out and Charizard let out a menacing roar of victory as aerodactyl was captured inside the Great Ball.

Reaching the capture of aerodactyl, Ash’s mind snapped back to the present. As he was considering whether to debut the ancient draconic pokemon in the next match or not. 

Professor Oak had been dumbfounded by the discovery of aerodactyl and the other hibernating fossil pokemon, because they showed many traits not seen in those that were being resurrected by fossils. Throwing into the doubt how fully accurate the resurrection process was.

For example, while aerodactyl did show some proficiency with rock-type moves, Champion Lance had always, or so Oak said, wondered why it did not show more proficiency with the element in its natural movepool. 

Oak’s study of Ash’s aerodactyl was leading the professor to believe that the creature may actually in its native time have been simply a Flying-type pokemon purely, or perhaps dragon or dark-type as a secondary-typing. So much was unknown about both the creatures and the impact of the resurrection process. 

But that was not the issue Ash was facing now. 

The issue Ash was facing was whether or not to use an unruly but admittedly powerful pokemon that was exceptionally rare and would bring a lot of attention down upon himself.

Just having a charizard was outlandish enough for a rookie trainer, but luckily Ritchie’s own charizard and Gary’s arcanine had deflected some of what normally would have been a lot of scrutiny. 

Should he use Aerodactyl and risk the battle getting out of hand? It was keeping Ash awake. Luckily the true portion of the tournament after the preliminaries was one full match a day. So Ash did not have a match for another two days.


End file.
